Senate Seeks Longer Session

RICHMOND — The Senate on Wednesday voted to extend the just-started General Assembly session by an extra day to give members more time to study amendments to the state budget.

Some senators said they have been frustrated in past years at not having enough time to study the budget and offer proposals of their own before voting.

"It's certainly a signal cry that more people want to be involved," said Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr., who presides over the Senate. Beyer and other Senate leaders - including Majority Leader and Finance Committee Chairman Hunter B. Andrews, D-Hampton - opposed the extension.

Odd-year sessions of the legislature are supposed to be 30 days, but lawmakers routinely extend them to 45 days. Immediately after this year's session opened at noon, the Senate considered a resolution that would extend it through Feb. 23, or 45 days.

Sen. Dudley J. Emick Jr., D-Botetourt, a maverick lawmaker, then proposed a 46th day - at a cost of about $70,000 to the state - to allow lawmakers more time to study the budget before they vote.

Emick and his supporters complained that the current process - in which key work is done behind closed doors at the end of the session by six ranking lawmakers - left them with little time to study the final plan before voting.

First the senators voted 20-20 on the measure, forcing Beyer to break the tie. Beyer said the extra cost to taxpayers bothered him, and, he added, "I believe in deadlines."

On a second vote, though, Sen. Emilie F. Miller, D-Fairfax, switched her vote, and the measure passed 21-19.

"I was just persuaded," Miller said, without elaborating.

The House will consider the Senate proposal today. On Wednesday the House, controlled by Democrats, voted along party lines to defeat a Republican attempt to change the assembly schedule.

Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, a frequent critic of Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's secrecy in budget matters, and other supporters of Emick's proposal said they were not being critical of the Senate leadership.

"I have a feeling it's an eruption of frustration over how this process has been going since August," when Wilder began proposing budget cuts and giving lawmakers little detail, Gartlan said.

Andrews said the attempt to get more time with the budget was the result of jittery lawmakers worried about the unprecedented number of budget amendments being handed down by Wilder.

The slew of amendments is the result of a nearly $2 billion budget shortfall the state is trying to cope with.